Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-09-24
TIE RAILROAD MIND.
GROWING DEMAND FOR A NEW
KIND OF MENTAL APTITUDE.
Ouickness to Act and . Patience to Mas.
ter D~taii-Drigin of Railway SlAugh-
ter.-A Farmer Boy. Fatal Mistake-
Good Management.

The railway when il came into the
human world brought a demand for u
new kind OF mental force or aptitude.
The railway man from the president TO
the brakeman must possess q qulcknesS
TO perceive, Quickness to act and a
patience to master detail; an omission Of
task may cost great sums or may de
stroy life. When superintendent passes
over his road in private car and eX
amines the track and bridges while he is
moving at the rate OF thirty miles an
hour, he is not necessarily a criminal, he
may be only an intellectual imbecile. He
should be removed from railway service
and be commended to the task of super
vision Of an OK or pack horse service. One
day some men were moving weeds, nail
ing up loose boards and whitewashing at
railway station. and confessed the mo-
tive of such industry was to he found in
the fact that the superintendent was to
pass along next day. These men all knew
the kind Of lightning inspection that
would be made by their cheif
In the history Of national banks one
can read the shallow import of the word
inspection" but there the mental weak
ness Of an inspector costs the country
money and not life. For bank to fail in
a few days after having been pronounced
unusually sou ID is an event not wholly
unknown; but the depositors are not
killed nor mangled. 1t is in railroad
work mental weakness assumes its most
dangerous shape. A facile, lax, easy
going mind may in the railway profession
become as fatal as a can Of dynamite or
an earthquake.
FEW FORM OF MIND.
Many railway slaughters have resulted
from the slOwneSs OF educational pro-
cesses. Tho new iron road has created q
demand for new form of mind. but it
cannot at once supply the demand Mr.
Galloway, one Of the most conscientious
and ideal railway men on the continent.
said once that each passenger train which
runs from Chicago to New York must pass
through the hands Of 500 men who are wide
awake to each duty When one ponders
upon this statement, and remembers how
difficult it is to fiud 800 capable men in =
single row, the wonder comes that train
ever passes over a 200 mile path without
being wrecked or injured.
Why should the public, which cannot
inspect a bank or milk can, rail at the
men who come only tolerably near in
specting railway The railway is help
ing to make better kind OF brain, but
brain is of slow growth. A coIored man
was recently asked at what time the cars
passed his cabin, and his reply was that
they went north in the morning and south
in the afternoon. To lead such a man up
TO 8 conception of such divisions Of time
as 2:O9 or $40 or J:lj, would be an educa-
tional task Of no little weight. To give
such mortal place upon a railway
would be criminal, for if he did not Kill
others he would soon kill himself
Only last week one of these boys Of the
farrn, aliured by false vanity to seek rail-
way work, met his death because of men
tai laxness. He was made switchman at
a village station. The sole OF one shoe
became unsewed. Thus was he made Ii
able to be thrown down. He took the
q switch and stepped quickly, his shoe
sole caught on spike head and death
came quickly His method with his shoes
new surroundings.
QUACk RAILROAD MEN.
The educational power of the railway Is
kept back by the pitiable truth that
many of its officials are not students Of q
great art, but are only speculators II land
or stocks. when not absolute thieves.
Quack railroad men are more numerous
than quack doctors. Good men are dis
charged to make room for favorites, and
thus fortunes and life are placed at the
mercy Of untrained minds. In the army
. colonel was displaced that some cousin
Of the generals might have the position.
When the new colonel rode out to exercise
ha hny la tn1I IL,